Chapter 729 Between Attack and Defense
For the Ma Da Blue Army, which has tens of thousands of people, the offensive in the morning is just a tentative attack, and using hundreds of lives to test the strength of the city defense is only a short time for the commander of the Ma Da Blue Army. Just ordinary combat methods. The casualty rate that the defending army could not bear was not a big problem for the Ma Da Blue Army. The horse's tactical intention against the Blue Army was very clear, which was to use a simple offensive to find a breakthrough in the Batavia city defenses. At least after the battle in the morning, it can be said that most of the Dutch army's defensive methods have been exposed, and after a few hours of adjustments by the Madrid Blues, their offensive will be more targeted.
The troops of the Ma Da Blue Army stopped at a farther distance than in the morning, and then began to install and adjust the trebuchets. After Bart noticed this, his expression became even more gloomy. Although the trebuchets in the Ma Da Blue Army fired slowly and had very limited damage to personnel, they were no match for the city defense artillery in the battle with the defenders in the morning. Several were destroyed by artillery shells during the battle, but Bart was very Understand that this primitive weapon has its advantages.
First of all, the strike accuracy of this weapon determines that its target is not a single point, but an area. For example, if a certain section of the city wall is designated as an attack target, the probability of hitting this area is much greater than the city defense army's artillery accurately hitting the trebuchet. This is the main attack method currently used by the Mada Blue Army. Secondly, the lethality of this weapon to personnel is relatively limited, but the degree of damage to city fortifications cannot be ignored. Although Batavia's rammed earth walls can withstand ordinary shelling, the heavy stone bullets whizzing down can Gradually, gaps and cracks were made in the city wall. If the opponent kept using trebuchets to focus fire on a certain place, the defenders actually had no particularly effective defensive measures to use. They could only watch the stone bullets falling from the sky bit by bit. Destroy the city walls. Third, the trebuchet used by the Ma Da Blue Army this time has an extremely long range. Compared with the artillery at the top of the city, it has no obvious disadvantage. This makes the defenders no longer able to use the range advantage of their own weapons to suppress the opponent's long-range firepower output. .
The battle in the morning had obviously allowed the Mada Blue Army to detect the hit rate of the city defense artillery at that distance, and consciously moved the trebuchet back a certain distance. On the one hand, it was to reduce the chance of the trebuchet being hit by the city defense artillery. Probability, on the other hand, is probably to change the target of attack-this is one of the things that Bart is most worried about.
In previous battles, only about half of the deaths and injuries of the Mada Blue Army below the city came from the attacks on the city walls, while the other half were caused by the small wedge-shaped fortresses outside the city that made it difficult for the Mada Blue Army to launch an offensive smoothly. Although there are often only one or two hundred soldiers stationed in these fortresses, the firepower output by the volleyball formations they form can firmly lock the Mata Blue Army who are trying to attack the city through the ladder bridge near the moat. .
Since the siege troops were almost all lightly armed, it was difficult for the weapons in their hands to cause any damage to the strong fortress - in fact, the Materan infantry could not even charge within twenty steps of the fortress, and they had already fallen inside the city. Under attack from the musketeers outside. Under such a crossfire attack, the Matalan infantry was unable to engage in a head-on confrontation with only short spears and bows in their hands. Facts have also proved that their attack methods achieved extremely limited results. Although they also killed and injured some defenders in the fortress, There was no way to capture these troublesome fortresses and advance the offensive to Batavia.
When the first stone bullet flew through the air and hit the trench, causing a large splash of water, Bart knew that the commander of the Mada Blue Army was obviously aware of this and had adjusted the priority target from the city wall to the garrison fortress outside the city. .
After the first round of ejection, the trebuchet on the opposite side stopped for calibration. But Bart did not dare to wait for the opponent to adjust slowly, and immediately ordered all the artillery within the range to fire, trying his best to bombard the enemy's trebuchets.
Almost all of the wedge-shaped fortresses outside the city were built after the last war. As peripheral defense fortifications, the height, thickness and solidity of their protective walls cannot be compared with the main city walls, and their ability to withstand attacks is naturally much lower. When the Matarlan trebuchet launched its second round of projectiles, several stone bullets hit the outer wall of the fortress outside the city, kicking up large amounts of dust.
The forts outside the city are also equipped with artillery, but due to the limited space inside the fort, there are only two to four small-caliber artillery in each fort. They are mainly used to kill troops who forcefully cross the defensive ditch. The trebuchet is not within its range. Therefore, for the attack by the trebuchets, the garrison in the fortress had no effective means of dealing with it except shouting and hiding everywhere like headless flies.
After the Horse and Blue Army withdrew the trebuchets, the Dutch army's artillery hit rate indeed began to decline. Although Bart adjusted his tactics in time and let the artillery on the city wall begin to focus fire on areas, the effect was still not ideal. After five rounds of bombardment, only one trebuchet was hit. This performance made Bart almost jump in anxiety.
Of course, Bart did not dare to order the army to go out of the city to fight back. That would definitely fulfill the opponent's wishes. The Ma Da Blue Army was eager to have the defenders go out of the city to fight, and then use their strength to force a fight. In addition, before the Ma Da Blue Army landed, the defenders had destroyed several passages to the city moat, leaving only the passage in front of the north city gate. However, if the war goes unfavorably, the troops fighting out of the city are likely to be destroyed because of the passage. It was too narrow to retreat back to the city in time. Under such double risks, Bart naturally did not dare to act rashly.
The Mata Blue Army unhurriedly carried out stone-throwing attacks on several forts outside the city for two hours. Hundreds of stone bombs flew from the Mata Blue Army position to the Dutch fort, destroying the defenses of the fort. The wall was covered in dust. During these two hours, the Dutch defenders also hit twelve trebuchets, but the casualties were too far away to be counted.
The commander of the horse-defying blue army was obviously more patient than the Dutch army expected at the beginning of the war. In this round of fighting, the opponent did not send infantry to rush into the battle again. Basically, long-range weapons were used to attack the fortress outside the city. Although these trebuchets require more manpower, their cost of use is actually much lower than that of artillery. During the two-hour battle, the trebuchets can fight almost continuously, but the artillery on the city head needs to be cooled intermittently. , and the commander must also consider the consumption of ammunition and the loss of artillery life. In contrast, although the defenders have advanced weapons, they are much more passive than their opponents who mainly use cold weapons.
In the end, the fall of dusk saved the nearly collapsed defenders in the fortress outside the city. The Ma Da Blue Army packed up their siege equipment unhurriedly and slowly retreated to the camp three miles away in military formation. The defenders were seizing the time to inventory the battle damage outside the city.
The results of the inventory really worried Bart. Of the six forts outside the northern city wall, only the two immediately outside the north gate had the function of protecting the entrance to the city because of their dangerous location. They were built more efficiently than the other forts. It's very strong, so the damage is pretty good, and it won't be a big deal with some minor repairs. But the other four fortresses were not so lucky, and the protective walls collapsed in varying degrees. In the most severely damaged fortress, one-third of the protective walls have collapsed or cracked, which will greatly increase the difficulty of its defense.
In addition, the casualties were more serious than in the morning. The number of soldiers killed in the fortress by stone bullets or the walls collapsed actually exceeded the number of soldiers killed in the morning, and the number of wounded was nearly a hundred. Such battle losses are absolutely unacceptable to the defenders with limited strength. If the fight continues like this, it won't take more than ten days for the horse-defeating blue army to rely on this primitive tactic to wear away the elite defenders bit by bit.
Bart originally thought that Van Diemen would come to the front line in person to deal with the situation here, but when he came down from the city wall, he learned that Van Diemen had rushed to the east, where the fighting situation was worse than in the north, outside the city. When the fortress was attacked by trebuchets, the parapet collapsed, crushing the artillery in action below and the soldiers on the entire gun emplacement. The fire used to light the fuse ignited a barrel of black powder not far away, and the subsequent explosion It sent the entire artillery crew into the sky and implicated more than twenty unlucky people nearby. What's more serious is that the explosion also collapsed a large section of the protective wall that had not yet collapsed, leaving nearly one-half of the fortress without basic protection - if the Mada Blue Army attacks again trenches, then the soldiers would have to fight face to face with these Nanyang barbarians.
Although this was not good news to be thankful for, Bart was secretly relieved. Without this big flaw on the eastern front, the performance of the northern front he was responsible for in the afternoon would obviously have been severely criticized. Although there were no major problems with Bart's command, as a commander, the positions he was responsible for did suffer undue casualties and losses during the battle. "Assemble manpower immediately and repair the fortress walls outside the city overnight!" Bart couldn't think of a more effective way to defend against the enemy now, so he could only seize the time to repair the damaged fortifications. As for whether this temporary repair would be able to withstand the next wave of attacks from the Malanmen, he no longer wanted to imagine it.
"Second Lieutenant Bart, the grown boss is here again."
As soon as Bart returned to the headquarters under the city wall, the guards came in and reported to him the news of Cheng Dapeng's visit.
"Didn't I ask him to contact Su Keyi first?" Bart muttered, but still did not refuse Cheng Dapeng's request: "Bring him in."
Cheng Dapeng came into the house carrying a lacquered wooden food box. After seeing Bart, he talked about his troubles. Bart had been fighting for a day, and his energy had long been gone. He didn't even think about standing up to greet him. He just nodded and said: "Boss Cheng, what's the matter with coming here at this time?"
"I know Lord Bart has had a hard time fighting today, so I specially ordered someone to cook some watercress, hoping to replenish Lord Bart's strength." After saying that, Cheng Dapeng put the food box in front of Bart without waiting for Bart's response. Open on the table.
"Delicious bacon and pea soup!" Bart originally wanted to say something polite, but when he saw the dishes in the food box, his attention was immediately attracted: "Mini muffins! And French fries! Boss Cheng, you are really So thoughtful! ”
"It's not just that." Cheng Dapeng unhurriedly opened the first layer of grids, and it turned out that there was another layer below: "This is Western paella, and there is also a small bottle of wine. Mr. Bart has probably heard of the Haihan people brewing it." ‘Sanya Wine’?”
"Of course, this wine tastes very good. I didn't expect you to hide so many good things!" Bart took the wine bottle from Cheng Dapeng's hand with a smile, carefully looked at the "Sanya" mark on the glass bottle, and nodded. Said: "Yes, this is an authentic Haihan product. It is often out of stock in the Batavia market, and the price is terrifyingly high. If I remember correctly, such a small bottle of 'Sanya wine' costs one florin." , my salary is not even enough to drink a bottle of this wine every day.”
"If Mr. Bart likes it, I will send you some in the future. I still have a small amount of stock in the house." Cheng Dapeng said as he took out the bowls, chopsticks, spoons and cups, and neatly arranged them for Bart. .
Bart felt a little sorry: "Boss Cheng is too polite, how about... let's have a drink together?"
"I can't bear to drink, so Lord Bart can enjoy it." Cheng Dapeng came to the camp specially to come to the camp. Naturally, he didn't come to drink with Bart.
After meeting Bart last time, Cheng Dapeng was thinking about how to continue this line, and specially recruited several colleagues in the same group to come up with ideas together. After everyone thought about it, it seemed that using food as comfort food was a feasible idea. So I spent money to find a cook from Northern Europe in the city, and then cooked a few so-called Nordic delicacies.
However, the Netherlands does not have any outstanding food. Even the Dutch themselves once complained that "the French live to eat, but the Dutch eat to live." In addition, the ingredients that can be found locally are very limited, so the actual dishes made even Cheng Dapeng can't stand it. So he asked the chef of his own rice store, who was also a colleague from the security department who had received cooking training in Sanya, to add Haihan's signature seafood rice. The seafood used came from the own stock that Dacheng Rice Store had reserved in advance. Cheng Dapeng was worried that the portion was not enough, so he added another bottle of "Sanya Special Brew" in a 2-pack.
It turned out that Cheng Dapeng's worries were misplaced. Bart, who had been hungry for almost a whole day, obviously had no idea of being picky about food and almost swept away all the food with a whirlwind. As for the bottle of Sanya special wine, he drank it as an aperitif before eating.
(End of chapter)